Lizzy in 3rd place at Olympic halfway stage.

Lizzy is third at the halfway stage of the Olympic women’s skeleton in Pyeongchang, 0.10secs behind leader Jacqueline Loelling of Germany, with two runs to come on Saturday.

Lizzy seeking to become the first British athlete to retain a winter Olympic title, clocked a track record 51.66 on her opening run to top the timing sheets – with Deas sixth fastest.

The latter improved on that in the second run to move up to fourth, 0.17 behind leader Jacqueline Loelling, while Yarnold dropped down to third overall – although she is only one tenth of a second off gold.

Lizzy appeared to be suffering from dizziness after the first run, insisted she was unconcerned by the issue.

“I think with the cold and the dust I’ve had a sore throat for about a week now and a bit of build up in my sinuses. I think I forgot to breath going down the run,” she said.

“So for the second run I just really relaxed into the race and made sure I was breathing properly.

“It’s a great position being in third, especially with Laura being in fourth and having her so close. We’ll go back and have a cup of tea and a chat about what we can do to make sure we’re both on the podium.”